AH-6Z Littlebird Night-Ops build project

[Ratty]

What are the things on the walls for? The things with the pretty patterns, think you called them fractals.

[DaveyLC]

Fractal Antennas :)

[Zeeflyboy]

Wg - technically epoxy run lol, from when I was gluing the doors into place.

Yup they are fractal antennas - basically a normal dipole but compacted down using a fractal pattern to reduce overall length and thus fit in a more compact space.

There is a slight trade off in efficiency vs a normal dipole but its minimal.

[Zeeflyboy]

So it's been a while since I posted anything interesting as I've been in Miami... and I can't really post much still because most of my toys are back in Geneva and I'm in the UK for a couple more days. But I believe something is better than nothing right? So, while it's not directly AH-6 related I think some will be interested in it. I've made a start on my new ground station! I love taking my friends up for a FPV ride or just bringing them to help out and watch or fly their own stuff... of course the trouble is that FPV can be decidedly dull for an observer - it's about time I joined the party and built a ground station that can share out the experience. The AH-6 is something I definitely want to share.

So it's just a start but here is the top panel, designed to fit an 8" rmrc screen fully stripped down. I engraved the writing and symbols at 0.5mm and then just put some white paint in... I'll need to make some custom buttons.




Recess on the back to accept the 8" LCD module




And heres the bottom plate, same deal with the engraved pattern and paint. Top left is a speaker for the audio alerts from the OSD, below that is a button for turning on/off the 5.8ghz relay as required. Bottom left is going to be a small compartment for storing the wire to the antenna tracker. Top right we have the main power button along with a current and voltage meter, below that is a record button and SD card recorder module, then at the bottom are two 4 pin locking outputs which can provide video, audio, 12v and ground to two separate video goggles.




All goes into this fetching Pelican case






3D printed frames I made earlier which allow me to mount my panels to the case




Epoxied into place




So that's about that for now, I'll post more details as I build it if anyone is interested. As a final off-topic post for now here's another little doo-hickey I'm working on - a low profile and anti-vibration case for my GoPro3, I just got done cutting the carbon front and back plates.





I do hope you all forgive the brief diversion  ;)

[Zeeflyboy]

Just got back and I had a new toy waiting for me (it's like christmas every week...) a skylark AAT IV. I've been wanting an antenna tracker for a while and I felt I was ready for one at last - when skylark recently updated the shop with the IV I couldn't resist any more! I picked up a couple of the convertor modules too so I can get the tracking working.

Looks pretty nice, and if it's good enough for sentry then it's good enough for me lol. Here it is along with some of Sircana's sexy antennas and Sander's sexy aluminium box. I know sander will be disappointed but I just used some 3M locking tape so I can quickly pop the DUO on and off for transportation and to swap it out with a 2400DUO *cough* hint hint sander *cough*






Also popped together what I have of the ground station for a test fit - still waiting for a few components. I think it's looking pretty funky though and I'm looking forwards to using it! I'm loving the yellow box.




and here they are together, obviously the tripod isn't fully extended there.

[Zeeflyboy]

and just to briefly carry on the off-topic, here's a little GoPro case I whipped up since it's finished. Well okay it's not finished - I didn't have any clear lexan to cut the lens protector element so that'll have to wait. The rest is done but I might tweak the files a bit to perfect it.

The various parts:

- Front and back plates cut from 2mm CF plate
- Lens Protector Mount (Shapeways 3D print)
- Central band (Shapeways 3D print)
- Anti-vibration bobbins x4
- m2.5 screws x8




Band fitted to GoPro, you can see cutout for memory card/charging/HDMI panel and power button.




Assembled unit (minus lens protector element)




Fitted to QAV... you may notice the new case I made for the 5.8Ghz IMRC vTX too using a heatsink instead of a fan. That's the only part of this post that's relevant to the AH-6 as I'll be using the same design in there ;)

[g.collins]

Like the GP case.
;) G

[Coyote]

Love the Peli case, I want to do the same thing with carbon plates with everything mounted, but alas no means of doing it

[Zeeflyboy]

Yeah I thought about doing these in carbon and may eventually do so once I'm happy with everything - it's expensive material to get something large wrong in lol.

Thing is I hate cutting carbon... It's really messy, the dust is dangerous to health and screws up electronics, and the stuff blunts even high quality tungsten carbide tools relatively quickly.

I find G10 is much nicer to work with personally.

There's a couple of guys offering their CNC services though aren't there? I'm sure one if them would be able to cut your design for you.

[Zeeflyboy]

Hey guys, do you remember when I was building a helicopter - that was a cool project wasn't it?

So first up Juan's gym membership has begun, but I did one part of one arm and got bored... lol. The idea is just to get a rough arm shaped bulk to go underneath the clothing so it looks like it should. Hey, at least I'm 1/8th of the way there....




So, after getting bored with that I thought I'd fit my Naza LED access hatch. Not pictured here is the small handle that will engage the lock mechanism. Idea is simple really - naza LED goes in this hatch and during startup I can leave the hatch open until I can see I have full satellite lock, then I can close the hatch and go fly. Equally if I need to program the Naza or adjust settings I can just pop open the hatch, pull out the LED unit and plug in the USB.

[Zeeflyboy]

And these guys arrived today... haven't fitted him out with all the kit but I think you'll agree they are an upgrade on the old ones. Detail is insane, but more to the point I think the size looks more appropriate for what is in reality a pretty small helicopter.

He's in the helicopter without seat, but you get a good idea of the fit. Those legs might have to be trimmed a bit though!

[skyscraper]

[...]



[...]

Err.. Shouldnt the Omni Antenna be upright? As it stands you'll have the blind spot pointed at the aircraft at all times  :laugh:

regards
Andy

[Zeeflyboy]

Nope, though many people don't click until its explained and it does instinctively look a bit strange.

If you were trying to cover the eventuality that your helical fell off or your rx module with the helical attached exploded then yes, having it vertical would make sense.

However, that is pretty unlikely. More likely is that you either want to fly without tracking, or a backup in case tracking freezes.

As they are arranged at the moment, the null of the SPW is aligned with the strongest area of reception of the helical, while the weak area of the helical (the sides) are covered by the strongest area of the SPW.

Not only does that give optimal overall coverage, it also makes life easier for the diversity controller. It also has a further advantage that if the tracker goes completely tits up and points straight up (as they have been known to do occasionally) you do at least still have the SPW oriented in a good position.

[skyscraper]

Nope, though many people don't click until its explained and it does instinctively look a bit strange.

If you were trying to cover the eventuality that your helical fell off or your rx with the helical attached exploded then yes, having it vertical would make sense.

However, that is pretty unlikely. More likely is that you either want to fly without tracking, or a backup in case tracking freezes.

As they are arranged at the moment, the null of the SPW is aligned with the strongest area of reception of the helical, while the weak area of the helical (the sides) are covered by the strongest area of the SPW.

Not only does that give optimal coverage, it also makes life easier for the diversity controller. It also has a further advantage that if the tracker goes completely tits up and points straight up (as they have been known to do occasionally) you do at least still have the SPW oriented in a good position.

hmm not convinced. ( I'll go with my instinct ) I'd keep it vertical. As it is half the Omni is looking down underground and ... What happens if the aircraft goes round the backside of the Helical?  2 blind spots :laugh:


regards
Andy

[Zeeflyboy]

helicals actually have a very sizable back beam. That said though normally one would angle the thing upwards around 30 degrees and so the back of the helical and the back of the spw would both actually be pointing at the ground (talking without tracking here)

check out this thread if you fancy a read (sircana is the owner of Circular wireless btw if you didn't know) http://fpvlab.com/forums/showthread.php?16395-THE-ULTIMATE-5.8GHz-VIDEO-LINK-(AND-SIMPLER-OPTIONS)-EXPLAINED&highlight=ultimate+video+link